Zimbabwe’s visual arts @ 32

we are as liberated indigenous peoples.
The Gallery of Rhodesia became the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, and our national coat of arms changed from the Rhodesian Sable to the Zimbabwe Bird and the iconic Star of Africa.
Independence was an opportunity for Zimbabwean artists to claim their prime legitimacy of their identity and their social-cultural milieu.
While notions of cultural reconstruction, affirmation and indigenisation were prominently expounded on in the early 1980s, our 32-year-old vision is yet to assert itself within the public arena.
In order for us to fully understand the implication of independence, the visual arts and other art forms should provide for us an inspiration to appreciate our cultural, spiritual, social and economic liberation.
However, our visual independence is yet to unveil for us an entirely new way of distinguishing ourselves as Zimbabweans within the greater global context.
What constitutes Zimbabwean colour schemes?
What constitutes our heritage?
What constitutes our tangible and intangible heritage?
Which aspects of our traditions make up our visual identity?
The expansion of knowledge about our visual culture — past, present and possible future — is vital and pertinent.
Artists have to struggle against much misrepresentation of our recorded (and non-recorded) history in order to obtain recognition of our true cultural civilisation in our contemporaneity.
For generations, Eurocentric anthropological opinion attributed most of the characteristics and distinguishing features of ancient Zimbabwe, our civilisation and cultural artefacts to Phoenicians, Minoans, Egyptians and other ancient cultures alien to Zimbabwe. 
The reason was simple: We had not recorded pictorially, or documented our visual cultural heritage. Given our three decades of self-rule, it is time Zimbabwean visual artists became more introspective and questioned, deliberated and examined what makes us Zimbabweans.
An important aspect of any nation’s life is the way in which it sees itself. Each nation has been produced by its own peculiar history and exists in its particular environment.
It has features no other nation can share.
One of the ways we can explore our own particular national reality is through art. The visual arts give us an insight into the multiple facets of our collective life as Zimbabweans.
While we gloat of our various national achievements, a recognisable identity in the form of a national dress has not succeeded to take root. 
If art is to be seen as a barometer of our social-cultural milieu and gauge of our socio-cultural progress, we should question ourselves why this has not taken place.
Neither has the proposed Sadc School of Art and Design mooted since the mid-1990s  come to fruition. The collapse of the colonial administration and the subsequent establishment of the independent Republic of Zimbabwe made possible a number of far reaching reforms.
Among these were those concerned with culture — its definition, its expression, (particularly in relation to the arts), and its importance in economic and social development. The formation of a division of culture within a major Ministry of Government has enabled Government to express a coherent policy on cultural matters.
In essence the policy has three facets to it:
l The peoples of Zimbabwe must be made aware of their splendid cultural heritage and re-discover the traditional art and beauty which were theirs;
l With access to the artistic and cultural heritage of the whole world, rather than just a part of it, the educational system, formal and non-formal, must draw on this universal heritage to enrich the present life of the peoples;
l The cultural richness of the past, and the present, must be understood and be enjoyed, to enable all of our peoples to participate, to the maximum, in planning the future egalitarian society of Zimbabwe.
Both the artist and the general public in Zimbabwe are aware that there is a growing interest regarding the sources of Zimbabwean creativity as it is emerging and blossoming after colonialism, which attempted to destroy much of the culture to which Zimbabwean classical traditions of art belonged.
Despite the fact that the ingredients and conditions which enable art to grow and flourish exist in Zimbabwe, local patronage of the arts has been found wanting. 
Perhaps as we celebrate our independence, let us reflect on our visual arts and culture, which give a tangible vision of what indigenisation should mean.
l Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD in Post-Modern Art Theory and a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) in Post-Colonial Art and Heritage Studies.  He is also a practising artist, designer, art critic and corporate image consultant.